ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SYSTEM 13 
The fear of such competition appears to have 
been the chief cause of the almost unanimous op 
position on the part of the members of the bank 
ing fraternity to all postal savings bank pro 
posals. Senator Cummins of Iowa said in the 
Senate: “The banks of the United States are 
opposed unanimously to the institution of a pos 
tal savings system. ... I venture the assertion 
that during the nearly two years that I have been 
a member of this body ... I have received the 
protests of nearly every bank in my State against 
any such scheme, and those protests have usually 
been accompanied by a very large number of peti 
tions, secured, I have no doubt, through the in 
dustry and energy of the bank officers.” 21 
The American Bankers Association, through 
the Postal Savings Bank Committee of its Sav 
ings Bank Section, carried on for nearly three 
years an active propaganda against postal sav 
ings bank legislation, maintaining an active op 
position at Washington, 22 and distributing over 
the country an immense amount of literature. 23 
p. 354. Cf. also William Lewins, History of Savings 
Banks, pp. 322 et seq. 
21 Cong. Rec., June 20, 1910, pp. 8811-8812. 
22 Cf. Chronicle, American Bankers Association Conven 
tion Supplement, 1909, pp. 207, 208 and 211. 
23 The following is an illustration of the character of the 
campaign which the Committee on Postal Savings Banks 
conducted. On November 24, 1908, when the Carter Postal